Notes from ProTools CPD

1. Scott McBirnie
Sound Engineering Unit 1

2. 25 September 2013
• Audio Session
Notes
Use ‘Carillion’ for teaching stuff in class.
Command Shift 4 = screen shot
Command + = Toggle screens
Alt and click faders etc. and highlighted
stuff on mix desk = set to 0
Follow this formula:
• EQ
• Compression
• Effects
(picking and picking 2 is duplicated to
boost sound – done a lot with vocals).
Can be done with a natural double-take
(record twice). Makes double sound
level.
• Alt and click on EQ effects at top of
mix box and move over to ‘picking
two’ – copies EQ all over.

3. • EQ 1 (picking track)
EQ 7-band
Sweep through on graph – ‘where is the sweet spot?’ (which is the
fundamental tone is)
4th harmonic ends up in HMF – sounds like a whistle (all sounds have 4
harmonics and doesn’t resemble the fundamental); make sure that this
isn’t here – take this out and brighten up sound using HF (check poster
for different harmonics to see where ‘whistle’ appears).
Why I’ve done what I’ve done:
• LF decreased due to ‘boomy’ sound
• LMF – Q decreased to make the effect more ‘pointed’ – affects
less frequencies.
• HF – increased to bring out brightness.
• HMF – brought down to eliminate the ‘whistle’ (Q narrow to
affect less frequencies)
Fundamental Tone – 1200Khz (Vocal)
1 harmonic – 2400 KHz
2 harmonic – 3600 KHz
3 harmonic – 4800 KHz (maybe boost this due to weakness, but depends
on microphone/room used)
4 harmonic – 6000 KHz
Do some lessons around this?
Dynamic hearing range: 20Hz to 20Khz
These are found most between LMF – HMF (therefore these make the
most difference when using EQ).
‘bypass’ button – takes it back to what the EQ was before EQ (when you
hear the difference it should just be a tonal difference).
Options > loop playback = loops each individual track
Allows you to
tighten or
expand the
frequency
bandwidth
Allows you to
sweep through
the frequencies
Gain allows you to
CUT or BOOST

4. • EQ 2 (arpeggio track)
Not touching the bass register as
the track is very treble
LMF raised to warm sound
HMF gets rid of whistle
HF brightens sound

5. • EQ (melody track)
The microphone is too close to the
guitar and hand – bad frequencies
brought in. Mic placement
important.
This journal should document the
student’s why they’ve done what
they’ve done.
Each ball can be moved up and
down to boost more bass/treble
frequencies depending on needs.
LF left untouched due – most affect
is made with middle three mixes.

6. • EQ (harmony track)
LF is decreased in order to remove
the sound of the finger hitting
another guitar string
LMF and MF are brought closer
together in order to warm this level
of frequency.
HMF decreased to remove whistle
HF brightens sound

7. • EQ (chords track)
LF is decreased in order to bring all
other elements down as this
provides more freedom to make a
difference with the sound.
LMF – warmed slightly
HMF – whistle decreased
HF – not brightened too much as the
‘chinks’ will be brightened too
much.

8. • How to Bounce track
This creates a raw file (Left Right
Stereo) unpanned – everything will be
referred from this. Comparing the
bounces will see the progression.
AIFF = mac
WAV = PC
Never mp3 – no quality

9. • Bounced tracks (EQ)

10. • Compressor
Go for Maxim compressor
‘Bringing the ceiling down’ and ‘brings
up the noise floor’
Always set to -1
Threshold – bringing down makes the
dynamic louder
Soft compressor 3:1
Hard “ 5:1
If you apply something else at the
compressor then sometimes you’ll
have to go back and tweak the EQ. If
they like the power of the compressor
then it becomes boomy again and you
have to sort this out at EQ.
If a track isn’t sitting the mix then a
compressor might bring it out

11. • Compressor (arpeggios)
A soft (3:1) compressor was used, but
this brought up the sound/noise floor.
This had to be compensated back in the
EQ by cutting the gain

12. • Compressor (melody)
This has to stand out in the mix as
this is the main melody. It has quite
a weak signal already (can be seen
by the big sound ceiling).
This therefore needs a larger
compressor but doesn’t necessarily
need a EQ change.
Teaching point:
Get learners to get screen clips of
each compressor to describe what
needs done to it and if anything
needed done with the EQ.
The chords track doesn’t need much
(if any) compression due to the
‘chink’ and because we want it
sitting in the mix.

13. • Panning
Think about the group will sit and
pan with this visual in mind – create
a stereo image.
Aware of musicians in the stereo
image; interpret the visuals. This
guitar group perform in a half-
moon:
• Centre: main melody
Pan them to what position they are
sitting in.

14. Shift and select all the tracks at the
bottom (white boxes)
Command G = groups all these
together

15. • Effects
Always bring the mix DOWN before
we add any effects – this will
gradually be put up to add the
effect.
Sometimes effects will just be put
on individual tracks – but this effect
works well for the class
Stems – different word instead of
‘grouping’/’groups’

16. Effects added
When tracks are grouped if you
move on track up then ALL tracks
move up.
See effects (D-Verb) box

17. • Lesson re. binary
• Put up first 3 sections of binary
code (3 bit rate instead of 64 bit
rate)
• Put binary code up and get them
to work out digital code
• Then do in reverse.

18. Dissect a film clip by
clip
• Film
Clips can be imported on ProTools
Check these figures out:
National 3 = 3 audio tracks?
National 4 = 5 audio tracks?
National 5 = 6 audio tracks?
How many people make soundtrack?
Composer – 1 stem
Foley engineers (for real-life sounds)
200 people over 1 year to create sound for a film.
Educational use – as long as they acknowledge intellectual property
then they can us it in our context.
Same concept make animations really come alive – see folder on USB
(Brave? Monster Inc.)
Can show a film which highlights mistakes (good exercise for after
dissecting film – they know what to look for)
Dissect each clip and decide how we’d put
sound to this. Each time the scene changes
it’s a different clip – the sound changes from
outside the car to inside, etc.
(Clip of plane and car)
LoTR – extended DVD 2 towers (sound scape
how to do it); The Dark Knight too.
If at a distance this should be reflected in
sound – reverb and quieter.
Close-up to people – hear them breathing,
etc.
More training:
• October = radio
• Saturday training?
• Protools expert – working on educational
stuff
Money from literacy and numeracy across
curriculum.
Should I apply for National 5 music?

19. • Books
Music Technology Revision Guide –
see pictures on dropbox.
Email address:
jillian.mcavoy@googlemail.com